1. Field
The present invention relates generally to sports, and more particularly, to the selection of player rosters for sports and fantasy sports games.
2. Related Art
Generally speaking, fantasy sports are virtual games where users, referred to often as owners, build a collection or “team” of players that compete against teams created by other users. The teams typically include players from a professional sport (e.g., football, soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, etc.). The players accumulate points within the fantasy sport game based on their individual (and sometimes team) statistics, i.e., statistics from the actual player performances over time. For example, typically, a predetermined or agreed upon model is used to associate actual statistics of individual players into points. Teams thereby compete based on the number of points accumulated over a given period. The period may be based on a weekly schedule, number of games, season, etc.
A fantasy football league, for example, may include several teams of players selected by users. The players may be selected based on a “draft” or other means whereby the users select players generally based on their expected performance. Typically, a team must draft a number of players for each position such as quarterback, running back, wide receiver, kicker, and so on.
Additionally, in some variations of fantasy sports the user has the option of substituting players in and out of a starting line-up or roster. For example, some of an owner's team may “start”, i.e., are used to accumulate points for a particular cycle (e.g., on a given day, week, or game(s)) while other players are “benched”, i.e., are unused or left out of the point accumulations for the team. Continuing with the fantasy football example, an owner may have two quarterbacks that may be used in a given cycle; however, typically only one may “start” per cycle. The owner therefore chooses which player to start and which to bench.